Nehemiah Ezra

The day our family has been waiting for for the past 9 months finally came today! We welcomed our 6th baby into our family, Nehemiah Ezra. It has been a challenging year, but in the middle of it all, God has chosen to bless our family once again.

By God's grace, my birth story is quite short for my 6th, though the waiting process was not. God has done a lot of work in my heart as I waited and prepared for another child. This month in particular has held much of that. I had my Mama's day out the 1st of June, which was wonderful. As soon as it was completed, I was ready for him to be born. Not long after this we found out my dad would be having eye surgery July 7 and we really needed our boy to come by the week before so my parents could come meet him. So we prayed and I did what I could to attempt to make myself go into labor. Nothing would happen.

Yesterday my parents came up for a friend's baptism, and less than 12 hours later my labor started. God always has a plan and is always in control, even when we don't know what His plan is or understand what it is He is doing. This is what God has been teaching me throughout this pregnancy.

We went to bed last night with our plans for the next day in order. Jim and I prayed and went to sleep. At 2:30 am I woke up just feeling icky and needing to pee. After this I had a contraction. I laid back down, because I have had contractions off and on for weeks with nothing happening. I dozed a little, but the contractions continued and I could not get back to sleep. I battled to sleep for 2 hours, but I was also getting hungry. At 4:30 I decided to get up and go into the living room to pray and read some of the Psalms I have been reflecting on lately.

Contractions were every 5 minutes, but I was able to nap for 30 to 45 minutes, which was nice. At 5:30 I was starving, so I ate a protein bar just to have something in my stomach. Just before 6 am my oldest came into the living room and my contractions changed becoming much stronger and coming every 2-3 minutes. At 6:15, Jim came in and I told him that I was in labor. At that point I was still not sure about when I wanted to go to the hospital, but we started moving in that direction. I took a shower and during the shower it became clear that I was moving into a more active status. I called my doctor on call and we decided I should probably head to the hospital since it is my 6th baby.

We arrived at the hospital right around 7 am and got checked it. I was already 6 cm with a bulging bag of water. I had to have a saline lock (the absolute worst part of giving birth). Once it was placed they took me over to my delivery room. They got me situated and made sure our baby sounded good on the monitor and then let be.

I moved very quickly. About 8 am my water broke on its own. We told the nurse and she told me I was 9 cm so I could not fully push yet. I looked at Jim and said, "I need to have a baby." 20 minutes later, he was born!

I had prayed frequently that my labor would be quick, and God graciously granted this to me.

At 8:20 am on June 28th, Nehemiah entered this world outside the womb. He weighed in at 8 lbs 7 oz and was 20 inches long.

This is the first time we found out ahead of time what the gender of our baby is, so we were ready with a name. Nehemiah Ezra means God is my comforter and helper. This is who our God is and now we have a daily reminder of how much God has comforted us and helped us throughout our life as this precious boy, made in God's image, is a part of our life.

Father, thank You for giving Nehemiah to our family. Please save him by your grace and teach him that You are the great comforter and helper. You are all that he needs!

We are so excited to begin our life as a family of 8!